


A Cold Day in Hell

by Moonsault



Series: Heaven & Hell [1]
Category: World Wrestling Entertainment
Genre: Angst, Episode Tag, Kayfabe Compliant, M/M, Religious Imagery & Symbolism
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-13
Updated: 2017-10-13
Packaged: 2019-01-16 19:45:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 772
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12349416
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Moonsault/pseuds/Moonsault
Summary: A moment shared in front of a dressing room door.





	A Cold Day in Hell

Kevin touched the nameplate, his fingers shaking, letting them coast over the names, right there in black print together. _Together._ “Kevin Owens  & Sami Zayn,” just like they should be. He’d badgered Bryan into giving them a dressing room together, demanded they have their own nameplate, everything had to be perfect. Everything was going to be _perfect._

Okay, he’d exaggerated the story a little bit, there in the ring. He hadn’t actually seen the Pearly Gates, he hadn’t literally talked to Saint Peter. But he’d opened his eyes and seen Sami there, an angel in black, his eyes fixed on Kevin, hands reaching for him. Pulling him to safety. And he knew then, he _knew_ , that they could get out of this hell that they’d been locked in for years. He just had to be brave and walk ahead and show Sami the way out. So he did.

“It’s beautiful, isn’t it?” he said. He let his finger loop around the curves of the capital S, travel up and down the m, come to rest like a little kiss to dot the i.

“It sure is, Kevin.” Sami’s voice behind him was quiet, like a ghost of himself. Like he wasn’t quite here, wasn’t quite real. Kevin remembered that story, about the guy who went to hell for his love, who’d brought her back to the world to be with him forever. Except he hadn’t made it all the way, had he? He’d looked back and she’d vanished and he’d wandered the earth, alone and crazy.

Well, Kevin wasn’t going to look back. He was never going to look back.

He pushed the door open. “Come on, let’s start making some plans,” he said. They’d talk and Sami would get into it and soon he’d be waving his hands around and talking about having matches together. It would be great, it would be like old times, it would be _better_ than old times. Kevin just needed to show him the way.

Kevin led Sami out of Hell.

* * *

In front of him, Kevin was staring at the nameplate. Sami looked down at his hands. The hands that had saved Kevin Owens. The hands that had thrown everything away. It was the strangest thing. He still felt so strange.

For a moment there on Sunday, he’d felt _so much_ all at once, one terrified burst of utterly uncontrollable emotion as Shane had started to step off the Cell. He’d gone to ringside in case Shane needed help against Kevin, because no one understood what depravities Kevin was capable of more than him (blood and pain, tears and anguish, he knew them all so intimately). 

And then, when Shane had stepped forward, he had known something else. He had _known._

He had found himself with his back against the cold metal cage, shaking, his boss broken on the table in front of him and Kevin lying at his feet, and he had _known_ in that instant that he would throw away his job, his life, every single principle and moral he had ever held, to save Kevin Owens. It was as simple and as unbearable as that. Apparently Kevin was more important to him than anything else, apparently nothing he had ever said about the “right way” or about walking rather than working with Kevin had any meaning. Nothing had any meaning anymore.

He’d felt his whole body shaking as if tossed by a terrible wind, and when it was over all the emotion had been shaken out of him somehow, he was empty as a mask with nothing behind it. Free and falling. It had been almost a relief to open his eyes and feel nothing.

Tonight he’d danced his way to the ring as usual, forcing his body to move the way it always had, feeling like he was operating some strange dancing puppet. He’d looked at Kevin and felt nothing, but he _knew_ he loved Kevin, he knew that he’d die for him. He remembered the emotion, even if he couldn’t seem to feel it right now. So he forced himself to stretch his mouth in a smile, to put his arms around his brother, feeling distant and strange. He was so cold, but he couldn’t even seem to shiver anymore. He would follow Kevin anywhere, abandon everything for him. It was the only thing he knew about himself anymore.

Kevin opened their dressing room door. “Let’s start making plans,” he said, and Sami remembered how Kevin had said he’d go to Hell and rule it. Well. He wouldn’t be alone. Sami would never leave his side again.

Sami followed Kevin into Hell.


End file.
